History of the American Experiment: A Democracy or A Republic?
Source: Yale Law
HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT: A DEMOCRACY OR A REPUBLIC?
Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial
Our quarter-millennium experiment with non-monarchical self-government, now 250 years old, remains singular in history. See my previous article on the American uniqueness compared to other nations throughout history.
Congress had authorized George Washington to command the Continental Army in June 1775. In time, the American Revolutionary War would gain the country’s independence.
The Treaty of Paris in 1783 officially ended the American Revolutionary War against the colonial power that had previously ruled us, Great Britain. King George III of Great Britain had the world’s most powerful navy, but the American Colonies threw off British control through several battles that began in 1775.
But would the country’s government be a democracy or a republic?
Definition of Democracy and Republic
It may seem that these words are synonymous, and in some cases, they’re used interchangeably. But the difference between their meanings is subtle yet profound. While there may appear to be overlap, they are quite distinct, as I’ll illustrate.
There are several definitions of these words. To be clear, I am not talking about the current political parties, “Democrat” or “Republican.” Let me use the most universally agreed-upon meanings that are also useful in differentiating these two words:
- Democracy: government by the entire population of citizens. The Greek roots are demos (people) + kratia (rule).
- Republic: government whereby citizens elect representatives delegated to rule for them. The Latin is Res Publica (public affair), something held in common by many people.
Stated differently:
A direct democracy allows citizens to have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation without reliance on intermediaries or representatives. Majority rule stipulates that an election by the largest percentage of voting citizens decides a matter. A democracy is often contrasted with an aristocracy (rule by “the best”), a monarchy (rule by a monarch), or a dictatorship (rule by an autocrat).
A republic, by comparison, rules through representatives elected by the citizenry to its governing bodies. Examples include the UK’s House of Commons, while the U.S. has the House of Representatives and the Senate. While this type of government is sometimes called a representative democracy, or an indirect democracy, it is crucial to keep these two terms distinct, as we’ll see later.
America’s Brief Experiment with a limited Democracy
America had briefly experimented with a democracy of sorts after the Revolutionary War, but the Founding Fathers, the Framers of the American government, did not prefer a democracy.
Articles Of Confederation, Page 1. Image: Wikipedia
Adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777, and ratified by all 13 states on March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation became the new nation’s first governing document. However, the Framers recognized the unworkable weaknesses of these Articles: they had established a loose confederation of sovereign states with a feeble central government — a poor basis for a functioning federal system. The democratic excess was in the States.
The Articles allowed each State, as a sovereign entity, to establish its own foreign trade policy. Each State had only one vote in Congress, regardless of size. The Federal Congress did not have the power to tax, maintain a standing army, regulate interstate commerce, or formulate foreign trade. There existed no executive branch to enforce any laws passed by Congress.
Several state governments of the 1780s (Pennsylvania’s radically democratic 1776 constitution, the paper-money and debtor-relief legislatures, Shays’ Rebellion) alarmed the Framers. It was this unchecked majoritarianism in the states that James Madison had in view when he wrote Federalist Paper No. 10.
A meeting was set in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. This became the Constitutional Convention. The delegates there, led by James Madison, realized that changes would not be sufficient. Instead, the entire Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced with a new U.S. Constitution that would dictate the structure of the national government.
Constitutional Convention. Image: Wikipedia
James Madison: Father of the Constitution
James Madison’s formative years were spent at Princeton (College of New Jersey), as I’ve written previously.
John Witherspoon, by Charles Wilson Peale, c 1790. Image: Wikimedia
He studied under the supervision of John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was the college’s president and a professor there. Madison studied Latin, Greek, and theology, as well as the works of the Enlightenment.
Madison had contemplated entering the ministry or practicing law following his graduation, but instead decided to remain at Princeton to study Hebrew and political philosophy under Witherspoon.
Witherspoon profoundly influenced Madison’s ideas on morality, philosophy, and political theory. Historians have noted parallels between Witherspoon’s Presbyterian polity (church government) and the subsequent U.S. Constitution, which Madison, the primary architect, drafted and promoted.
Presbyterian theology is based on the Calvinist doctrine of human sinfulness – drawing on St. Augustine, who developed it from St. Paul – and the need for God’s grace and human institutions as checks and balances.
Madison’s famous argument in Federalist Paper No. 51 — “ambition must be made to counteract ambition” — reflects the Presbyterian assumption that human nature is fallen. Therefore, no person or institution should be trusted with unchecked power.
More specifically, Witherspoon translated Calvinist political thought into the language of the Enlightenment, which Madison then operationalized in the Constitution. Witherspoon argued that Presbyterian polity demonstrated proof of concept: representative self-government actually worked in practice, not just in theory.
Madison held that direct democracy led to factional tyranny, instability, and mob rule, whereas a Republican government would effectively combat partisanship and factionalism. Here are some of the parallels between Witherspoon’s Presbyterian polity and the U.S. Constitution:
1. Representative Governance
Both systems reject the rule of a single individual (such as a monarch or a bishop) in favor of representative leadership.
- Presbyterian Polity: Governance is conducted through a series of graded councils – including local congregational Session, regional Presbytery, and national General Assembly – composed of elders (presbyters) elected by the congregation. This is in contrast to episcopal (bishop) or congregational (democratic) forms of church government. See my explanation here.
- U.S. Constitution: The government is a republic where citizens elect representatives to exercise legislative and executive power. Local → State → Federal.
2. Checks and Balances
Both systems incorporate mechanisms to prevent the concentration of power.
- Presbyterian Polity: The “plurality of elders” ensures that no single person holds absolute authority; decisions are made by groups (councils) rather than individuals. This polity shaped the structure — not just the spirit — of the American republic.
- U.S. Constitution: Power is divided among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, creating a system of separation of powers.
3. Constitutionalism and Written Law
Both the church and the state rely on a written “constitution” to define their identity and operational rules.
- Presbyterian Polity: The church operates under a Constitution consisting of the Bible, standards of faith (such as the Westminster Confession of Faith), and a Book of Order (or Form of Government). Some historians note that American Presbyterians used the term “Constitution” for their governing documents even before the political Founders did.
- U.S. Constitution: The nation is governed by a supreme written document that establishes the framework of government and limits its power.
4. Distinction between Republic and Democracy
- Presbyterian Polity: Witherspoon explicitly taught that pure democracy was unstable, while representative republican governance was both viable and morally legitimate.
- Federalist Paper No. 10: This is precisely the argument Madison makes in Federalist No. 10 when he says, “A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the Union...”
What the Founding Fathers Said About a Democracy
Source: Difference Wiki
The Founding Fathers were outspoken about their opinions on democracy:
John Adams:
“Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes, and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure and every one of these will soon mold itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues, and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.”
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
George Washington:
“It is one of the evils of democratical governments, that the people, not always seeing and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act right; but evils of this nature seldom fail to work their own cure.”
Alexander Hamilton:
“If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.”
“Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.”
“It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.” –his speech at the New York ratifying convention, June 1788
James Madison:
“Pure democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” –Federalist Paper No. 10
John Jay (First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court):
“Too many in your state, as in this, love pure democracy dearly. They seem not to consider that pure democracy, like pure rum, easily produces intoxication, and with it a thousand mad pranks and fooleries.” –from a letter to Judge Richard Peters, July 24, 1809
The American Republic
Republic. Image: Pix4free
Instead, the Founding Fathers preferred a constitutional republic over a democracy.
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.” –letter to William Hunter, March 11, 1790
the very definition of a Republic, is “an Empire of Laws, and not of men.” –Thoughts on Government (1776)
“Where a majority are united by a common sentiment, and have an opportunity, the rights of the minor party become insecure.” –his June 6, 1787 speech at the Convention
Ben Franklin, responding to a question as he left the Constitutional Convention of 1787:
“Well, doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” His reply:
“A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” –recorded in James McHenry’s convention notes, of a reply to Elizabeth Willing Powel
Factoids of American Uniqueness
This distinctive form of self-government has produced significant and enduring benefits to America, some unique in all the world:
- The country has grown from 13 colonies with about 2.5 million people to 50 states, 5 inhabited territories plus numerous island possessions, and 1 district, with a population of more than 340 million.
- The economy has swelled to nearly $32T.
- Advances in public health—public sanitation, the germ theory of disease, and more—have cut the child mortality rate from more than 45% to under 1%, and our citizens live over 35 years longer on average.
- We’ve built almost 4 million miles of public roads, 161,000 miles of federally supported highways, more than 5,000 public airports, and 15,000 private airports.
- The U.S. power grid is one of the most extensive electrical systems on Earth, with more than 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines.
- Over 91% of households have access to broadband Internet, and 95% have at least one computer.
- In 1800, 94% of the population lived in rural areas; now, about 80% live in urban areas.
- The U.S. has been responsible for hundreds of human spaceflights, more than all other countries with a space agency combined.
- Scientific achievements in the U.S. have delivered everything from the practical incandescent light bulb, modern flight, and the Internet to air conditioning, the polio vaccine, and Hollywood and the modern film industry.
Happy birthday, America.
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
